Epic Travel → Central and South America → Peru → Hiram Bingham

♦ Intrepid Top Pick!

Location: Sacred Valley, Cusco Region

Time Required: 4 hours

Red Tape/Notes: Reservations can be made online via PeruRail. To make a reservation by phone, or for additional information on the train and other services, visit the Hiram Bingham section of the Belmond website.

What’s Nearby?: Ollantaytambo, Sacred Valley Horseback Riding, Machu Picchu

Traveling on the Hiram Bingham is expensive, and because of that, unless you have limitless funds, I’d only recommend traveling it one direction and saving your money going the other way (traveling on the Hiram Bingham one way, as of 2017, is $500 per person; by comparison the perfectly comfortable and serviceable Vistadome is $115 per person). I would, however, highly recommend taking it if you can afford it – it was a highlight of our trip, like traveling back in time and experiencing what it was like to travel in high style on the railroad back when it was the fashionable thing the upper classes did. Trains going from Cusco (technically the station at Poroy) to Machu Picchu (technically the station at Aguas Calientes) leave in the morning and serve lunch on board; the opposite direction leaves in the late afternoon and provides dinner service. Both directions have a live show in the lounge car. The show is particularly delightful if you have a boisterous and fun group of fellow travelers like we did – the staff wander around serving endless free glasses of champagne and snacks, and the live band offers various noise making instruments to the guests so you can play and sing along with the band. You can see these in action in the short video we made:

Epic Travel → Central and South America → Peru → Hiram Bingham